It's not Mom's congee, but it's still delicious

One of my biggest neglects of this blog so far is never writing about one of Mom's most wonderful, magical comfort foods: congee.

I've asked her more than once how she makes it, but like most of her dishes it's a work in progress that is hard to pin down an exact recipe for. The most recent explanation required marinating chicken for days, using homemade chicken stock, cooking the congee for hours and hours ... I was instantly dismayed.

And it's not just because the process is long. It's more that I know I won't like the congee that I make as much as hers. Unless ... I make a completely different recipe.

So that's what I'm doing right now, as I sit sniffling with a head cold and trying REALLY hard to not call Mom and ask her to bring me some congee. I am a grown woman, dammit, and I can make my own health remedies (unless I have the flu, in which case I most certainly would ask Mommy to bring me some congee!)!

Luckily, I just learned a simple congee recipe in my Therapeutic Cooking class with Jennifer Adler, in which she simply threw all of the ingredients in a pressure cooker then served it to us drooling students. First, I'll share her written recipe with you, then I'll share with you my version, which is pictured above, so you can experiment with both:

Congee

Serves: 4
Preperation time: 3 + hours
Active time: 15 minutes

Congee is a long-simmered, rice porridge soup. According to Chinese medicine, simmering this soup for three hours balances the yin and yang of each ingredient, making it highly medicinal and easy to assimilate.

Congee is easy to make in a crock pot. Put the soup together before going to bed and wake up to this satisfying porridge. You can also put it together before going to work and the soup will be ready when you come home.

3/4 cup long grain rice
9 cups water or stock
1 4-inch piece kombu seaweed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ume plum vinegar or to taste
1 cup chopped cooked chicken breast
4 eggs
2 scallions, chopped
optional addition: sauteed mushrooms

Place rice, water, kombu and salt in a 3-quart soup pot or crock pot. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to very slow simmer and cook for at least 3 hours or up to 8 hours. Add additional liquid if necessary. Prior to serving remove the kombu, add the chicken and crack the eggs onto the top of the congee. Do not stir the egg in. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, or until the eggs have cooked to desired texture. Garnish with scallions and optional mushrooms.

Copyright 2009, J. Adler, original recipe

Not Your Asain Mother's Congee

3/4 cup brown long grain rice
8 cups chicken stock
1 handful dried shitake mushrooms
1-inch piece ginger, sliced
1 clove ginger, minced
1/4 cup chopped carrot
1/4 cup chopped celery
4-inch piece kombu seaweed
4 eggs
Beet greens or other green leafy vegetables

Place rice, chicken stock, mushrooms, ginger, garlic, carrot, celery and kombu in a pressure cooker. After pot has come up to pressure, cook for 1 hour or longer, until soup reaches porridge-like consistency. After congee has thickened, remove ginger, blend the kombu separately and stir it in (or remove), then crack the eggs into the congee and simmer for about 10 minutes (like you would poach an egg). Place a handful of beet greens or other green leafy vegetables in a bowl, then ladle congee on top to soften. Add seasonings to taste (i.e. garlic-chili sauce, soy sauce or amino acids).

THE VERDICT: Indeed, it is not my mother's congee. I much prefer the less healthy century eggs Mom sometimes puts in congee over fresh eggs, but on the other hand, I also think using brown rice gives it a much richer flavor and nuttier texture. Nothing beat's Mom's congee, and one of these days I will get a recipe to you, but in the meantime I hope this will suffice!

Chicken Marbella is a sweet-and-salty crowd-pleaser

When I first saw the recipe for Chicken Marbella, I did not think the combination of prunes and olives would go over well with Bryan. He seems to think that he doesn't like fruit with his savory foods, even though he raves about that combination just about every time he tries it.

Easy solution: I just don't tell him. Makes it easy when the recipe has a name like Chicken Marbella, and smells so delicious when it comes out of the oven that he's more concerned with getting that first bite in his mouth than needing to know what the ingredients are.

It's certainly a tactic that works when you've got an ingredient like prunes, even though they are used pretty sparsely in this recipe. Honestly, prunes are hardly an ingredient most people would think of putting in anything but a dessert, if at all.

But in a sweet-and-salty dish such as Chicken Marbella, the prunes add a boldness to the dish that makes it a sure crowd-pleaser among even those picky eaters. Just keep the ingredient list to yourself until after everyone has raved about your dish!

Adding flavor that's not sugar to oatmeal

There can never be too many recipes for creative ways to eat hot cereal.

Although my recent favorite is Maple Buckwheat Groats with Pears and Dried Currents, I may have found a new go-to with the above-pictured Oatmeal with Berry Compote.

I've actually been meaning to make this recipe since I posted it sans photo to the Bastyr recipes pages in February, both to see how delicious a cancer-fighting meal could taste and so I could finally add a photo to the recipe (which is why the photo on the link is identical to the above photo!).

It tastes good and it fights cancer? I'd be willing to eat this every day for that trade-off!

Arroz con Pollo an easy substitute for paella

So I thought I knew what paella was and that I had eaten and enjoyed it, but until last month, I apparently had never really had paella.

Now this is paella. I apologize that there's nothing in the photo to show you how incredibly huge this dish was, but realizing that all of those wedges on the corners are lemons oughtta help!

Bryan and I indulged in this deliciousness last month at one of the Thursday Night Chef's Dinners at The Wandering Cafe, a catering company in our neighborhood that swings its doors open for special parties throughout the year. You can read more about all of the other delicious courses we ate that night on a blog post I wrote for Maple Leaf Life.

As for the paella, after watching chef and owner Kristine Pottle slaving over her giant skillet for at least an hour, I'm not sure I want to follow in her footsteps. After browning the meats (which included chorizo, gigantic and delicious shrimp, and what Bryan called the best chicken he'd ever had), she slowly poured ladle after ladle of broth into the rice, which I know I do for risotto, but it's hard enough when I'm just using a regular stockpot rather than a giant skillet!

Needless to say, I found a shortcut tonight that though not even half as good as Kristine's paella, is sufficient for Bryan and me and doesn't require me to buy a paella pan and other "must-have" accessories.

Arroz con Pollo from Greg Atkinson's "West Coast Cooking." Similar to the paella, I started by browning the sausage (I used spicy Italian sausage because good chorizo is so hard to find!), then browning the chicken. Onions came next, then the rice mixed with smoked spicy paprika, diced canned tomatoes and beer(!). Instead of pouring ladle after ladle of broth into it like Kristine did for the paella, I just threw the meat back in and let it cook for 35 minutes. Green peas on top are the finishing touch (and no, Bryan did not tell me that these chicken thighs were better than Kristine's!).

Love this book.

Drunk pears waiting for winter!

I love it when I spend two days cooking for a party, then get sooo much more from my guests when they arrive. There were chips and dips, cheese and crackers and sausages, side dishes galore, and more beer and wine than Bryan and I will be able to drink in a month!

And a few guests even brought gifts from their own gardens for me to indulge in the days to come. It didn't take long for me to take advantage of the pears from Adam, Emily and Penny, especially after I found this recipe for Canning Pears Mulled in Red Wine. Since I'd never canned pears before, I looked online and was immediately smitten by this recipe. I didn't even bother looking at any other ones!

The wine syrup smelled delicious, the pears were juicy and crunchy, there is no way these won't be the best pears EVER!!! I'll let you know this winter when I'm in the mood for some drunk pears on ice cream!

The anti-Mom CHEESY Spinach Enchiladas

Last night I went to Mom's and she had quesadilla appetizers waiting for me when I walked in the door. They were delicious. I couldn't get her to tell me exactly what was in them, a few dashes of dried Thai chile pepper, a tiny bit of curry — and just a smidge, I mean a smidge, of cheese.

I don't know how she can use so little cheese in a meal that is supposed to be mainly cheese, but she does it. So what do I do? I ruin it.

I know! That's what I get for following an Emeril recipe for Spinach Enchiladas. Loads and loads of cheese. I used queso blanco, cotija and pepper jack, not to mention the whole milk (which I substituted for half-and-half, thank you very much!) and the heavy cream thrown in there.

Besides substituting (whole) milk for half-and-half, I did one other good thing: I used kale in addition to the spinach, which gave the filling more body and flavor. So it wasn't completely unhealthy!

But it was oh so delicious, served with Dos Padres-Style Spanish Rice from Greg Atkinson's "West Coast Cooking," and refried beans from Crescent Dragonwagon's "Bean by Bean."

An edible 5-year annivesary in Kauai

It was so tempting to post all of the photos of the food we ate in Kaui on my Facebook page, but if I'm sick of looking at other people's food on Facebook, I'm probably not the only one. Instead, I will torture you with the deliciousness we devoured during our return to Kauai for our five-year anniversary.

Our first night, after an entire day of travel and three flights (two that were first class so I can't complain!), we crossed the street from our home for the week at the Wailua Bayview Condos and headed to the Korean Bar-B-Q. It was late, and I wasn't really hungry after all of those Mai Tais on the plane, but both Bryan and I couldn't resist the Dinner Special.

Clockwise from the top: bean sprout salad, green salad, potato salad, shrimp tempura, Meat Jun (which was a beef coated with egg batter then lightly fried) and Kalbi. What a wonderful welcome to the island!

Being a sucker for a good deal, we also grabbed a few steaks from Costco, which carries a dizzying supply of Asian snacks, including pork-filled humbao, seaweed salad and my favorite king oyster mushrooms, shown at right. (Which showcases the beginning of my no-veggie week. Yes, I gained back the 5 pounds I lost before the trip, but it doesn't matter anymore!)

By now, we were ready for some Hawaiian food, and I had found quite a few places in "The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook" that I thought would do the trick. But as tourists our timing was way off the islander schedule and we kept missing lunch, and instead had to settle for some takeout poke from the Pono Market that was so delicious, it just made us hungry for more!

We got lucky during another stop at Costco and found a generous sashimi tray for two for a steal at $20 — a friend on the island says it's the best deal available, so bravo to us!

But my favorite night on the island was at Caffe Coco, an outdoor BYOB eatery that also was right across the street from our condo. We were quickly won over by the live music by Ken Solin and Co., and tempted to come back again because the cafe offers up live music nightly. And then our dinner arrived.

By the time I was served this spectacular seared ahi with a wasabi-coconut milk-mushroom sauce (and the only salad I had all week), the tears were flowing with joy at the perfection of the evening.

Bryan liked his Charmoula plate so much, he gave me one just itty-bitty bite of the sweet-potato pastry on the right. Of course we wanted to come back, who wouldn't? But we also knew that a night that perfect just can't be repeated ... at least not until our next visit to the island!

Despite the perfect ambiance at Caffe Coco, it did lack a view, which we made up for at Scotty's Beachside BBQ. Eh, I could give a rip about American barbecue, but on the night of our anniversary, I wanted to be able to gaze out at the ocean with dreamy eyes.

Service was unbelievably fast, Mai Tai was the best on the island, barbecue was forgettable, but the view was unbeatable.

So, you ask, did I ever get my Hawaiian food? Indeed, on our last day, as we were wandering around Koloa trying to find the restaurant we ate at before our wedding, we figured out it was Tomkats Grill.

Of course, I had to get the same Kalua Pig I got five years earlier, and yes, I was satisfied.

Bryan also had been wanting Kalua Pig all week, but he hates getting the same thing as me so he got these beautiful ahi tacos instead.

And to top it all off, I finished my visit in Kauai with Spam Musubi from the airport, which was the exact same place I had my very first Spam Musubi, also at the end of our first visit to the island five years ago.

Kauai, I missed you before we even got off the ground, and I hope to be back before another five years have passed!